FILE--Oil drilling Platform Irene, owned by Nuevo Energy Co. of Houston, Texas, is shown off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., in this Aug. 19, 1999 file photo. Environmentalists and state officials are wary ... more

A U.S. district judge rejected a federal agency's plans Friday to renew oil and gas leases off the California coast, and she ordered a new round of environmental reviews.

The decision in Oakland by Judge Claudia Wilken against the U.S. Minerals Management Service's proposed extension of the 36 leases off Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties is a blow to Bush administration plans to keep offshore oil development alive in California.

The ruling follows a unanimous vote Thursday by the California Coastal Commission to reject the Minerals Management Service's plan, and it essentially stops any federal initiative to renew the leases for the foreseeable future.

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"Technically, they could have ignored Thursday's vote by the Coastal Commission," said Drew Caputo, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It would have resulted in more lawsuits, and it would have run counter to the Bush administration's general championing of states' rights, but they could've done it."

But Wilken's ruling is an application of federal law to a federal agency, Caputo said. "They have to obey it," he said.

The Minerals Management Service has been trying to renew the leases for years but has been stopped by successful lawsuits filed by the state of California and environmental groups.

In an attempt to comply with an earlier court order, the agency conducted a series of reviews known as environmental assessments. They evaluated to a relatively limited degree the various impacts lease renewal could have on the marine environment and its wildlife.

After completing the assessments in March, the agency announced that no significant impact would be caused by extending the leases, and it prepared for their imminent renewal.

But environmentalists again sued, contending the agency had scamped its research. Instead of environmental assessments, opponents of offshore drilling wanted full-scale environmental impact statements -- reviews that are far more rigorous, and involve extensive public comment.

Arguing for the Minerals Management Service on Friday, U.S. Department of Justice Attorney David Glazer told the court that the case could best be resolved by directly addressing the issues raised by the environmental assessments.

Wilken rejected that argument. Though she didn't specify environmental impact statements for the leases, her requirement for additional reviews conducted under National Environmental Policy Act standards essentially supports the environmentalists' view.

Attorneys opposing lease renewal said Wilken's ruling was crucial, because the Minerals Management Service could have renewed the leases Monday, despite the Coastal Commission's action Thursday, and that exploration or drilling could have followed on some of the holdings immediately.

"All of these leases have previously approved exploration or development plans," Caputo said.

"The government has been saying lessees will have to develop new or revised plans," said Caputo, "but at the same time, they (federal officials) have been very elusive about just how much additional process, if any, will be required before development can begin."

That possibility also concerned Wilken, who questioned Glazer closely about the likelihood of exploration or development activity occurring immediately after lease renewal.

"Is there anything anyone can do on the day the leases go into effect?" Wilken asked.

"As I understand it, no," said Glazer.

"(But) there's some doubt in your mind," Wilken said.

"I know of no one who has a plan approved and ready to go," Glazer said.

Environmentalists and state officials have been puzzled by the Minerals Management Service's dogged efforts to renew the leases, given the wide bipartisan opposition to offshore drilling in California, and the fact that the oil in the lease areas is considered low in both quantity and quality.

"The administration's energy bill that passed Monday requires the Minerals Management Service to conduct oil and gas inventories in federal waters along the entire offshore continental shelf," Krop said. "We're worried that what we're seeing now is just a precursor to killing coastal moratoriums around the country, that we're going to see a big push for offshore development in general."

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